Uliana Gabara, Ph. D. Former Dean and Carole M. Weinstein Chair of International Education September 19, 2013 Why CLAC, For Whom, and By Whom: Many Models, One Goal CLAC Conference, Richmond, VA

Study Abroad Internationalization at Home Career Development Academic Training Language Learning CLAC Why CLAC? Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference Civic Engagement

Why CLAC? Study Abroad Language Learning CLAC Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

Language Learning Career Training CLAC Why CLAC? CLAC Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

Why CLAC? Study Abroad Internationalization at Home CLAC Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

Career Training Academic Training CLAC Why CLAC? CLAC Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

Why CLAC? Career Training Internationalization at Home Language Learning CLAC Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

H Stephen Straight, C/LAC, U Iowa, National Standards for Foreign Language Learning; 1996 Communication Cultures Connections Comparisons Communities – National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (1996) – a collaborative project of ACTFL, AATF, AATG, AATI, AATSP, ACL/APA, ACTR, CLASS/CLTA, & NCSTJ/ATJ Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference 2013

H Stephen Straight, C/LAC, U Iowa, Communicate in Languages Other Than English Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics. Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics. Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference 2013

H Stephen Straight, C/LAC, U Iowa, Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information Standard 3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language. Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures. Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference 2013

CLAC at Richmond In 1995, I proposed the creation of a LAC program. Here is what I said: Goals – Demonstrating the practical nature of the University’s language requirement – Demonstrating the close relationship between languages and cultures by creating an opportunity for seeing the different ways in which events and issues are analyzed with the cultural perspective is other than that of the US – Creating an opportunity for the use of current texts, information and interpretations available on the web, in journals, and newspapers – Creating opportunities for students to share their knowledge with others who, having studied a different language, have access to a different set of interpretations of the same ‘facts’ and events – Encouraging faculty members from all schools and departments to maintain and upgrade their knowledge of languages and to put it to use in the classroom as well as in research – Encouraging greater integration of the knowledge and points of view brought to the campus by international students – Creating opportunities for students returning from study abroad to maintain their fluency in the language and their contact with the country and culture in which they studied Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

CLAC at Richmond (cont’d) Design – Create a set of courses in all schools and across all disciplines which offer students and faculty members the opportunity to use their language skills by adding a 4 th hour (and 4 th credit) to already existing courses which are taught in English, e.g. consider a whole section of Leadership in Spanish – The 4 th hour, in a foreign language, can be offered by the faculty member who teaches the English language course, by a faculty member from the Modern Languages and Literatures Department, but an international student or by an advanced-level US student, especially one who has spent a semester or year studying abroad – Allow for various levels of language proficiency and design of the 4 th hours, from total immersion (requiring that students and faculty have an active and passive knowledge of the foreign language) to a mixture of active and passive use of the language, e.g. where texts are read in the target language, but discussed in English Structural Needs – Determine how faculty members who teach the language-based 4 th hours will be ‘remunerated’, that is, how the banking of teaching credit will be done – Create opportunities for faculty to design the Languages Across the Curriculum courses (summer workshops, involving external experts, would be necessary) – Create opportunities for faculty members to upgrade their language skills (summer immersion programs are available both in the US and abroad) – Train students to be effective teaching assistants for the 4 th hour of such courses – Purchase materials for libraries and language laboratory Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

History of CLAC: The Arguments and Their Effects Rationales, all good ones, have been proposed for CLAC since mid-80’s Everyone still quoting Lambert’s article from ‘91 At the same time number of consortium members, programs, and students has remained fairly similar from year to year/stagnant Graduate schools have dropped second language as a PhD requirement The world and higher education have changed Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

CLAC: More than language learning or different language learning and uses? A subversive rationale for CLAC Accounting for different language acquisition styles and talents in making the distinction between traditional language teaching/learning and CLAC Abandoning the excuse that the US and our institutions are monolingual; demonstrating that they are not by collecting and publicizing data about faculty, students and staff Building CLAC on that data Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

Beyond the use of language: the physiology of the bilingual/multilingual brain Enter research by psychologists, biologists, and other cognitive scientists showing that intensive language study results in detectable growth in the hippocampus (memory and mastery of new material) and the cerebral cortex (higher-order reasoning) The bilingual brain shown to be more efficient at “task switching” Effects on children, young adults, aging Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

CLAC: not a unitary program or approach Different models as responses to local needs and opportunities Models as responses to specific goals Overcoming the focus on ‘perfection’ Accepting the value of understanding based on verbal and non-verbal aspects of languages and the value of inference/’guessing’ on the basis of clues Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference 2013 It’s not just about use of language vs. language study 16

CLAC and Study Abroad, academic disciplines, and experiential learning The specific learning style and goals Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference

Uliana Gabara CLAC Conference 2013 In Conclusion… 18